附近上门

Nearly 2.5 billion people around the world are estimated to have some degree of hearing loss by 2050, according to by the .

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Smart-hearing aid startup is working to slow or prevent further hearing loss through new digital therapeutics for tinnitus and overall hearing health, in addition to its more affordable, easy-to-use hearing aids product line.

鈥淭he online market and offline market are different, so you can pay something like $50 to $200 for a sound amplifier online, but offline, there are higher fixed operating costs that make the same product closer to $1,000,鈥� Olive Union founder and CEO told 附近上门 News.

The Japan-based company closed on $7 million in Series B funding led by , and . Including the new funding, the company has brought in a total of $20 million, Song said. That includes a round in 2019 led by .

Song got the idea for the company back in 2013 when he was living with an uncle who was experiencing hearing loss. Although he invested in a $4,000 hearing aid, Song said, he stopped using it after a week.

His uncle is among the 20 percent of people with hearing loss who choose not to wear a hearing aid because good, quality hearing aids are expensive and care can be inconvenient.

Song launched Olive Union in 2016, shortly before the passed the to allow certain hearing aids to be procured without a prescription.

鈥淭his is not just a U.S. problem, but a worldwide problem,鈥� Song said. 鈥淵ou used to have to get a doctor鈥檚 note and prescription to get a hearing aid, but that regulation shifted it so you could buy a hearing device like you would consumer electronics.鈥�

Olive Union is still in the R&D phase and has 40,000 users, Song said. The new funding will enable it to move ahead with plans to ship its new -registered Olive Pro 2-in-1 true wireless earbuds and smart hearing aids later this year. The company also plans to expand its networks in Japan and in the U.S., as well as invest in technology development, he added.

Depending on the data source, the global is projected to reach approximately $13 billion to $14 billion by the end of 2026. Overall, 16 companies focused on preventing hearing impairment in known venture-backed funding since 2016, according to 附近上门 data.

Aside from Olive Union, recent funding announcements came from , a startup that uses artificial intelligence to help people hear better, which landed $35 million in Series B funding last October led by , to roll out its Whisper Hearing System. Medical device startup, a direct-to-consumer hearing aids company, leads funding raised among the group 鈥� with a total of $217 million, according to 附近上门 data. It most recently raised $71 million in a new round last July, co-led by and.

Meanwhile, , manager at Beyond Next Ventures, said his venture capital firm, based in Japan, invests in medical and life science companies and saw Olive Union鈥檚 approach as a way to solve the problem.

鈥淛apan has a big aging population, with half of those over 70 years old being hearing aid users,鈥� he added. 鈥淐onsidering the size of the market and the user pain being quite big, the company鈥檚 products will make hearing aids more familiar in the way they go about pricing, design and usability.鈥�

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